Saturday 17 August 2013

Onjuku Beach


There are quite a few "juku" in Tokyo. You might have heard of some, Harajuku, Shinjuku for instance. How about Onjuku?

Onjuku Beach is about two hours from central Tokyo on the Chiba peninsula. Usual way is the JR Sobu line, which continues on the Sotobo line to Kazusa-Ichinomiya, then you take the local service to Onjuku station. The cost is 1,890 yen from the Shinjuku area.

Some friends wanted to go somewhere different, so it was decided to come here.

The weather was nice and there were a few waves, although quite lame. While you could do some simple bodysurfing, I'd be a little embarrassed bringing a surfboard here. Chiba faces the open sea so it is possible. (Kujikurihama comes to mind)

Instead of a surfboard, I brought along a floatie ring that I "found" in Enoshima. It was left behind before we left that day. I got a 105 yen air pump to blow it up but it was pretty useless. One of the beach hut guys inflated it for "free" seeing that we rented an umbrella (1,500 yen). Not very manly (especially in pink), but it did the job nicely allowing me to zone out a bit

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The beach is a similar shape to Zushi. On arrival there are two camel statues greeting us at the entry. Strange. The sand is perhaps relatively cleaner, but the sea is much the same. Quite a lot of people with tats and tans around. I saw a girl with a butterfly tattoo on her chest. Not pretty.

If I lived in Chiba I'd frequent this beach more often, but for the time and money getting here, I'd say Kanagawa beaches are more worthwhile, as long as it's not loud and dirty Enoshima.


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